A Meet on RTE on 31st March 2013

...on occasion of 3rd anniversary of RTE implementation 

An RTE meet was organized by the All India Parents Association (AIPA) and Social Jurist on 31st March 2013, the eve of the RTE anniversary, at the Gandhi Peace Foundation. The main panel consisted of eminent advocates and philanthropists of education industry - O.P. Sharma, I.S. Gambhir and Ashok Argawal. Many remarkable points on government schools and private schools (both low income and high income) were discussed through speeches and interactive sessions.


Through the interactive session, many parents, activists and students of government schools voiced their experiences and concerns. The most common of those concerns included commercialization of education, poor quality of education, exploitation of school fees, abuse of children in school, corporal punishment and discrimination of minority group children.

CRY Delhi volunteers raised the security issue of schools and the issue of discrimination faced by children at school. As a possible solution, a panel member suggested that parents be strict with the school fees and pay only what is required. Citing that parents remain calm about the treatment of their children in school with respect to discrimination, he suggested parents to act as a team as doing so will force the authorities to stop discrimination.


At the end, Advocate Ashok Agarwal summarized five demands which would be put forward to the Education Minister and State Authority in the form of a petition which was signed by all parents present at the meet.

1. School education should be completely free whether government or private.
2. How many ever government schools are present today, that many more government schools need to come up. Moreover, the schools need to maintain a good standard.
3. The upper age limit for free and compulsory education needs to be increased from 14 years to 18 years. The lower age limit should also be decreased from 6 years to 0-2 years.
4. Constitution must be amended to bring back minority schools and minority groups need to be given more importance.
5. National law should include 50% representation from the community and parents in the school management to implement important decisions such as school fee.

The meet lasted for 3 hours with an attendance of over 120 parents, social activists, media and students.

Authors: Shruthi Dhanwanthary, Divyanshu Singh